Bicycle falls off back of Volusia Sheriff Chitwood’s car on I-95, damages three vehicles
Patricio G. Balona @PBalonaNJ
When motorists heading north in the darkness on Interstate ninety five encountered hurting road debris Friday night they didn’t know they were driving over a bicycle. They also were unaware that bicycle had fallen from the back of Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood’s police car.
At about 8:50 that night, frightened and shaken 9-1-1 callers, such as a woman from Okeechobee with a 3-year-old child in tow, called in, confused about what was happening on the highway.
The mother told a dispatcher she was parked in her disabled Ford Concentrate on the side of the interstate, not sure what had just hit their car.
“Someone had something fly off a trailer or lose a trailer tire, I then hit, it happened right in front of me,” the anxious woman said. “We are just shook up. I have a 3-year-old with me. My front tire is sucked out and my air conditioning is violated.” 
Chitwood talked about the incident Tuesday. He apologized profusely and said he is eased that no one was injured.
The sheriff’s 9-1-1 call came later. He was almost home in Daytona Beach when he noticed the bicycle was gone.
“I instantly stopped and hopped out and eyed that the strap had violated,” Chitwood said. “Right away I got on the phone with 9-1-1.”
In the 9-1-1 call, a worried Chitwood can be heard telling a dispatcher he hoped that no one was injured by the missing bicycle.
“I was coming back from Fresh Smyrna Beach and my g— bike fell off the bike rack,” Chitwood said.
The dispatcher informed Chitwood that they had received calls from motorists who reported running over the bike on the highway.
“Clearly, it’s mine. Clearly my bike came off the rack,” Chitwood said. “Thank God they were not hurt.”
Chitwood said he is doing everything to do right by the motorists. Volusia County insurance will pay for their damages. Estimates were not available Tuesday and were not a part of the Florida Highway Patrol crash report.
The sheriff said he made sure the Okeechobee woman got a car to get home and to work after her insurance company refused to get her a rental car.
“A lump of the bicycle was stuck under her car and she was pretty shook up,” Chitwood said.
The bicycle, a Scott mountain bike with police accessories, was given to him by a Port Orange dealer to test-drive since he is looking to buy bicycles to equip the Sheriff’s Office’s fresh bicycle patrol unit, the sheriff said. When fully tooled, the bicycle runs upwards of $1,500.
The agency is looking to purchase ten to fifteen bicycles to provide a more visible presence in the community, he said.
Chitwood said he took the bicycle and railed it on the beach from Fresh Smyrna Beach to Canaveral Seashore Park. After he was done, he secured the bicycle on the rack on his car as he had done hundreds of times and then headed home, eventually taking I-95 north toward Daytona Beach.
It was not until he got off of the interstate onto Beville Road where there were lights that he was able to see in the rear view mirror that the bicycle was not on the rack.
Unlike a speeding incident in January when Chitwood was caught doing seventy eight mph in a fifty five mph zone, where he asked to be ticketed, he is not being cited or charged in the bike incident because the strap securing the bicycle broke, Montes said.
“At the time that the bike fell into the road, the sheriff did not know that one of the two bikes secured on his vehicle had come liberate after a strap broke,” Montes said. ”When he noticed the bike missing, he contacted law enforcement.”
Chitwood said that he is puzzled that the strap on the bike rack — a Christmas bounty — snapped.
Chitwood visited the bicycle dealer on Monday and said they were understanding of his practice.
“They are going to get paid for the bike,” Chitwood said. “Either I pay for it or the county will.”